Monthly Archives: October 2013

Today will conclude our Fall Baking Special for a while. I’m nearing the end of my apple-picking extravaganza ingredients and am pretty broke as far as buying anymore nut flour, coconut flour, raw honey or other ingredients for baking. Gotta start focusing on other things! However, I was determined to make my apple pie and the apples were starting to get less fresh and nutritious so I gave this effort my all to go out with a bang!

I used recipes from three different sources, as every time so far that I have attempted a crust, it seems that my dough only makes enough crust for half a pie. So I generally run out of the ingredients and end up having to make the top layer from different ingredients. I’m not sure if this is because I’m doing something wrong with the crust or what, but it’s generally more of a pain than a real problem.

In a medium bowl, cream the coconut oil and honey until smooth and well

mixed.

Add eggs and mix until smooth.

Add coconut flour and salt and mix until well incorporated.

Press the dough mixture into a pie dish, or tart dish.

Bake for 10 minutes or until done.

A few things happened in the making of this pie that lead it to come out like this:

Instead of this:

First of all, as I mentioned, there is something wrong with my pie crusts. I swear I follow the recipe exactly, but my crust does NOT look like Elanas. It was very nutty (in taste and appearance), and again, was not enough for both layers. The filling was delicious, though again, everything seems to come out smaller in quantity. The top layer was fine, but I’ve yet to perfect the latticing, and I didn’t even bother to check if I had a rolling pin, so I basically just lay it in a big ball on top and spread it out with a spoon.

I then baked it altogether for 8 minutes on 350. The top was still basically raw so I decided to put it on broil for the last few minutes to brown up that thin layer (everything else was already cooked through). So broiling a pie crust is not a great idea, I guess.

I took the pie out of the oven and I DEFINITELY got that brown top I was going for, but the crust was a little burnt around the edges and the top crust layer looked like mashed potatoes. Which DOES, however, give me a good idea for my next cooking experiment!

Taste verdict: While not classically beautiful, this pie DOES meet the following criteria, which I could not say for absolutely 100% of my previous efforts: dairy free, sugar free, gluten and wheat free. I could eat this pie for breakfast. And I will.

Remember all that stuff I said about baking being kinda easy, just make slop, take a pic and bam, food blog?! Well, baking is hard!

This morning I set out to complete the rest of my Fruit and Crockpot Mania by making chicken stock, apple pie and pear muffins. For the pear muffins, I wanted to use the Hazelnut flour I bought (pear-hazelnut-cardamom, sounds good right?) and I was also determined not to make the same mistake with the coconut flour that I did yesterday, although when I brought those muffins to work, they were gone before lunch.

But, it was hard! Wah!

I first put the chicken stock on (still hope, there). Then I started on the pie crust. I found one recipe, that seemed like it was going to be good, but it wasn’t enough! It didn’t even cover the bottom of the pie tin. But I didn’t have enough eggs to make another one! So I used flax seed and corn starch to make a second, from this recipe from Jane’s Health Kitchen. AND, because I was in a rush, I used 1 tbsp. honey instead of the chicory, because, surprise! I didn’t have that either.

How the crust was supposed to look.

So the crust came out and in the meantime, I realized I didn’t want to waste my apples on it if it wasn’t good. So I took some of the fruit I had prepared for yesterdays pie and threw it in, even though it smelled kind of fermented. Moving on.

So I put the first pie crust on top of the fruit in the hopes of having it be some kind of “crumble” and put the pie in. It doesn’t “look” so bad, and actually doesn’t taste so bad either. Though, you can see it’s definitely got more of the crumble consistency that I was going for! Win!

This was hard. I decided I need to step back and re-evaluate my pear muffin and apple pie plans and perhaps buy some more eggs. Stayed tuned…

Update!

I decided to go with the more delicious looking zenbelly muffins, and substituted hazelnut flour for almond flour, corn starch for arrowroot starch, used butter instead of shortening and kept some whole diced pears in the mix, adding some cinnamon. Check out this batter!

And I am ECSTATIC to report that the muffins came out absolutely perfect:

Exploring the health care crisis through intergenerational conversation between Dr. Bernard Lown, a cardiologist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and his granddaughter Melanie Lown, a communications professional (and modern patient).

Seriously, I would sit and eat goldfish and oreos all day if I had it in my house. (Well pre-paleo I would have) But if it's not good for me, how on earth is it good for my baby?!?! So now, we are living a paleo / primal lifestyle, on a budget, with a baby!